Final Results for World Cup #1

Posted on Sunday, June 28, 2009

Not a great start for the Canadian team, but certainly some promise.  It certainly is a different strategy with best run counting in qualification run rather than combined.  Only David Ford made it to semi-finals and none to the finals.

It was interesting to note that another rule change this year allowing a competitor to race in more than one category seems to have an affect.  While perceived as a fine balance of allowing a competitor to run the couse twice in one class before racing in another it definitely adds strain on the body...  At any rate, two of the top 3 C2's included C1 or K1 paddlers.  David Florence of Britain placed 3rd in both C1 and C2, while Fabien LeFebre was 2nd in C2 and 3rd in K1.  Their C2 partners also raced in other categories. 

In C1 Slovak champion Martikan did not make it to the finals.  Jan Benzien of Germany won, with Alexandre Slafcovsky of Slovakia second and David Florence of Britain third.

In C2, another surprise as the Hochshorner brothers, after strong showings all weekend, finished 10th in the finals, which was won by the Skantar brothers also of Slovakia.  Fabien LeFebre/Denis Gargoud Chanut won second spot for France, while David Florence and Richard Hounslow of Britain placed third.

In K1 men, Peter Kauzer of Slovenia won, Boris Neveu of France was second and Fabien LeFebre of France was second.

In K1 women, Mathilde Pichary of France won, with Melanie Pfeifer of Germany second and Jana Duketova of Slovakie third.

Now for detail on Canadian Paddlers, starting with local ones...

In C1M, Cam Smedley ended up in 30th spot after shaving 14 seconds off of his second run. 3 touches however pushed him to 30th instead of 20th if had been clean.
 
In C2M, the Cutts brothers laid down what seemed to be a safe first run with 2 touches, leaving them in 15th spot, but all teams stepped it up with the new rules(best run counts) to shave time on their second. A 50 in the second run left them clinging to their first time, and they dropped to 23rd.
 
Sarah Boudens, in K1W finished in 26th position with a much improved second run where she had no touches. Jessica Groeneveld unfortunately had 4 touches on her fastest run from the first heat, leaving her in 37th position.  Similarly, Sara Potvin Bernal relied on her fastest first heat time, but this left her in 38th.
 
After the heats, veteran David Ford sat in 10th position, but missed out on the finals.  Ben Hayward finished in 28th position with 1 touch, in a tight field, that would have dropped him to 15th if he hadn’t touched the 1 gate!  John Hastings had to rely on his first run, which was clean but not fast enough, leaving him in 42nd. 
 
 

Here is the link to training photos courtesy of the official photographs at the World Cup race.  Unfortunately it appears all of the photos in the heats Saturday are focused on European paddlers.  www.ottawariverrunners.com/photo_gallery_detail.php

Even better photos by Luc Hautecoeur can be found at: www.luchautecoeur.com/kayak/

Further information including live results are at:www.paucanoe2009.com/